Following his 8 a.m. press conference this morning, Phil Mickelson was driven out to the 10th hole at Bethpage Black to begin his first and final practice round of the week in preparation for tomorrow’s U.S. Open first round.

Despite not having his wife, Amy, and their three kids here with him this week while Amy deals with her breast cancer diagnosis, Mickelson’s mood was upbeat today as he spoke about her prognosis and his golf game. The newsiest bit of information to come out of the press conference was Mickelson’s admission that he won’t play the British Open next month barring any unforeseen changes in plans. He said he would likely not play competitively until August “at the earliest” while he stays with Amy through surgery and treatments, which will begin July 1.

“I’m putting everything I have into this week, because I don’t anticipate being able to play for a little while.”

Among the other nuggets from his press conference included:

* The pre-U.S. Open event he played last week enabled him to get out of the way some of the things that would have distracted him this week.

“Last week was important for me to play, I thought, in Memphis,” he said. “It was important for two reasons: To get back into competition and also to have a chance to see some of our friends, the fellow players’ wives, caddies, tournament directors, people who have been so supportive of us.

“The people that did one of the nicest things I’ve ever seen for us, which was the Pink Out in Colonial. To be able to show my appreciation to those who did that (was important) on behalf of myself and Amy, to be able to let them know how appreciative we are.

“It was important to do that last week so that I’m able to focus more on just playing golf this week.”

* He said Amy has done some things to spur him on to play well this week.

“She left me a number of little notes, texts, cards, hints, that she would like to have a silver trophy in her hospital room, so I’m going to try to accommodate that,” he said.

* He likes his form at the moment despite some disappointing scores last week at the St. Jude and not having played a lot of late.

“I’ve actually been hitting the ball better than I have in a long time … and possibly ever,” he said. “I know it doesn’t seem like it after my score at Memphis, didn’t score very well. But I’m really excited about how things have come along, ball-striking wise.

“When Amy is going through tests and I’m sitting in a hospital for 10 hours, I was thinking about a lot of things. But I would take a break and think about my golf swing. I would talk to Butch (Harmon, his swing coach). Even though we didn’t hit any balls, I actually got my swing to where we wanted it to be able to hit little cut shots, control my misses, and I’m very optimistic about my ball-striking this week.

“I think the key for me will be on the greens. I putted these greens very well in ’02, and if I have a good putting week, I expect to be in contention on Sunday.”

* He was asked to compare the emotions of 10 years ago at the U.S. Open at Pinehurst, where he wore a beeper in anticipation of Amy giving birth to their first child.

“That was an amazing,” he recalled. “I think for parents, your most emotional experience that you ever share is the birth of your child. And we’ve been fortunate to do that three times. That was a week where we were excited about what’s to come. And this is an entirely opposite feel, because we’re scared about what’s going to come.”

* He spoke about how the support from the Bethpage crowd might affect him this week.

“It could be that that support helps carry me through emotionally when I’m on the course,” he said. “I’m certainly hoping for that.”

* He explained why he’s playing this week and why he played last week considering Amy’s health circumstances.

“We wanted to get more into a normal pace of life, normal stuff that we do; get the kids to camps; have play dates with the kids,” he said. “We had a birthday party Monday for our daughter. We want to try to keep life as normal as we could. We’re going to go through treatment. We’re optimistic with what the end result will be. But the process itself won’t be easy. In the interim, though, we want to try to have as normal a life as possible.”

* He talked about his love affair with the New York fans.

“Mainly, I love talking sports with people in New York, because there’s probably no place that has as knowledgeable sports fans as here in New York,” he said. “I’ve kind of brushed up on my information on the New York Giants and the Jets and Yankees and Mets in case I get into some discussions I know what I’m talking about. I thought that knowing a little bit about those teams would be probably wise on my part.”